A Game Changer… For Rendering

Tuesday November 24, 2015 at 3:34pm

PhotoView360
is an amazing add-on for SOLIDWORKS and can allow you to quickly and easily
create sophisticated photorealistic renderings and animations. PhotoView360
allows you to make powerful images and presentations, save time, increase
productivity and accelerate the time to market.

Generating
high quality, life-like images and animations is a critical capability that can
be used to enhance proposals, presentations, and submissions. People want to
see 3D models as they would appear in real life, using specific colours and
materials, in a specific environment or setting. They also want to interact, to
manoeuvre around and through the design to gain perspectives impossible in 2D.

However the
appearance database found inside the SOLIDWORKS software may be holding you
back from the aesthetic or look that you are trying to achieve once you’ve
spent numerous hours perfecting your design and model.

I thought
I’d share with you a game changer. Something that once you see it, it will make
you look at SOLIDWORKS in a completely different light and in an even more
positive way. A lot of you may already be aware of 3DContentCentral and GrabCAD, but
are you aware of The Foundry Community?

The
Foundry community is an asset site. A place where people share materials and
appearances. These aren’t just normal off the shelf appearances though.
Although there are classic appearances available such as plastics and metals,
there are also appearances like Elmo Fur, Dirt, Cracked Paint, rust and a green
lava blob just to name a few. These new appearances are something that can take
your rendering to the next level. You’ll no longer be limited to the standard
appearances in SOLIDWORKS.

Step
1.

The first thing you’ll need to do
once you’ve built a model is sign up to The Foundry Community. This is
completely free and once you’ve signed up, you’ll have access to 1000s of
different appearances.

Step
2.

The next
thing you’ll want to do is simply browse for the look you’re after. Once you’ve
found the one you want, simply accept the terms and conditions and press
download.

When you press the download button, the
zip file opens in windows explorer.

Step
3.

When the zip
files opens in windows explorer simply move it out of the way and when in SOLIDWORKS taskpane click on the appearances tab.

There are
various ways you can save the new appearance in the appearances folders. But
for now we are simply going to create a new folder called ‘Foundry’ in the
appearance library. You can name yours whatever you like or whatever you feel
will be most suitable.

Right click on the appearances folder
and click open folder. Next create a new folder called ‘foundry’ and drag the
.lxp file from the downloaded zip file into the ‘Foundry’ folder. Refresh the
folder and your new appearance will be ready to apply and use like all of the
other appearances

Step 4.

Apply the
new appearance onto the face/body/part. Notice the appearance appears in the
graphics window as 2D. This is because surface finishes only appear when
rendering occurs. You can however preview the new appearance using the preview
render functionality of PhotoView360.

Here is an
example that I carried out to show you the kind of affects that you can achieve
by using this new appearance library.